CVE-2026-81757

Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings <= 1.0.276 - Authenticated (Author+) Remote Code Execution

2026-08-27 00:00
Ananda Dhakal

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 1.0.277
Affected Plugin
Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings
Affected Version
<= 1.0.276
CVSS
8.8High
Weakness type
CWE-94 · Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
CVE
CVE-2026-81757
View all Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2026-81757 is a high-severity Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') vulnerability in the Rank Math SEO WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.0.276. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Author level or above. The issue is fixed in version 1.0.277; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed August 2026, reported by Ananda Dhakal.

Vulnerability Overview

The Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Remote Code Execution in all versions up to, and including, 1.0.276. This is due to insufficient validation of user supplied input before it is executed. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with author-level access and above, to execute arbitrary code on the server.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-94: Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')

Reaching this weakness in Rank Math SEO <= 1.0.276 takes an account at Author level or above. Code injection means input from a request reaches a language construct that evaluates code, so the attacker's text is executed rather than treated as data.

The injected code runs with the web server's privileges, giving the attacker the same access to the database and filesystem as WordPress itself. For Rank Math SEO the fix is 1.0.277: builds <= 1.0.276 are affected, anything from 1.0.277 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.0.277, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

An attacker needs Author access first, so the firewall sees the attempt as traffic from a logged-in account: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. Classes like this one can leave something behind, so the staged malware scanner is the second half: it looks for dropped files and modified code rather than for the request that created them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Rank Math SEO 1.0.277 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Scanner
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-81757https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/36ee4bf3-a4fd-44b1-95c3-0021543a0aa0https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-81757

Related records

Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C